It was an interesting week this week insofar as studying and sermon writing goes. I read the scriptures and then started looking at commentaries and other resources. When I looked up the pericope, that is the weeks assigned reading, of the Gospel it had a heading on it that said, “The Parable of the Tares”. I had heard this heading before, but it had never really struck me. Well, this time it did. What on earth is a tare? So, naturally I sat down and penned a letter. Dearest Google, I am writing to inquire as to… anyway, a tare is defined in biblical use as an injurious weed resembling wheat when young. That little piece of information, along with a pinch of the mysteries of the internet yielded a lot of more interesting information. The tare in question in this parable is most likely a plant called darnel. For a very, very long time it has grown alongside wheat. It’s very interesting how Googling a seemingly unimportant word can open up a fresh understanding and a glimpse into what Jesus’ hearers were hearing and understanding when he first told the parable. I doubt anyone listening today has had any experience with the darnel plant, that is unless you are listening from the island of Inishmaan off the coast of Ireland or in several areas of Africa. If you are, it’s awesome to have you with us, and welcome. The reason a once very prominent plant is so rare is due to an aggressive campaign to get rid of it. The people of Jesus’s day may not have known all of the science behind the plant but we do know that they would have had an understanding of at least some of the effects of the plant. Darnel is a symbiont, that is it relies on human care and cultivation to survive, so it sort of hitches a ride in a wheatfield where it can be easily overlooked through its maturity. Pretty cool trick, but this plant deserves an episode on one of those criminal biography shows with the really ominous narrator and intense music. The problem is Darnel is like that hitchhiker that your parents warned you about in the 60’s and 70’s. So what was up with this plant? Sarah Laskow wrote an article for AtlasObscura about the plant and pointed out that, “ In a big enough dose, this grass, darnel, can kill a person, and farmers would have to take care to separate it out from their true harvest—unless they were planning to add darnel to beer or bread on purpose, in order to get high. Darnel occupies a grey area in human agricultural history. It’s definitely not good for us. When people eat its seeds, they get dizzy, off-balance and nauseous, and its official name, L. temulentum, comes from a Latin word for “drunk.” The classic greeks knew about this plant and called it the “weed of frenzy”. People have been using intoxicants since pretty much forever so what’s the deal with this plant? Many of the plant’s effects are because the plant is very susceptible to the plant fungus Ergot. Ergot is where the base component of LSD comes from so you get the idea of what its effects might look like, but Ergot is unpredictable and causes ergotism Convulsive symptoms include painful seizures and spasms, paresthesias, itching, mental effects including mania or psychosis, headaches, nausea and vomiting. Also veins out in the hands and feet constrict lowering blood flow causing an array of problems up to gangrene and hands and feet falling off. So what sent me down this path? The answer is, the curiosity as to why Jesus would have someone sneaking in at night to sow weeds? LASKOW also pointed out that, “In his book Bread of Dreams, the Italian scholar Piero Camporesi argued that European peasantry lived in a state of semi-permanent hallucination from bread adulterated with more malign grains, which they may have sought as an escape from daily life.” As humans we are attracted to escape we are attracted to the buzz and sometimes and in darnel’s case oftentimes what seems to be harmless and attractive can have devastating results. So is Jesus launching a “Just say no” campaign? No, I think Jesus’ parables usually say much more than we, in our modern age and in our culture, hear. The idea of someone scattering weed seeds might not be so foreign. So, if this is the case, what is this parable saying to its hearers. The world, the evil one sows seeds that promise a buzz, a thrill, shininess, glimmer and allure. The Darnels, the weeds of this world entice us to power, wealth, superiority, escape, dominance, luxury all the while lulling us into a stupor and telling us that we deserve it and that it’s OK to bend rules and do whatever is necessary to get them. The weeds whisper justification for unjust acts. Depriving others to make sure we get what we think we deserve is the way the world’s system works so it’s OK. Do it for the reward, do it for recognition and praise, do it because it benefits you. When Paul talks about living in the flesh, this is what he is talking about in the seventh chapter of Romans. St Augustine used the phrase incurvatus in se and Luther expounded and clarified what this means. As humans, our nature, our tendencies, our desires curve back to our own self interests. Mark Johnson summarized, “that it not only bends the best gifts of God towards itself and enjoys them or rather even uses God himself in order to attain these gifts, but it also fails to realize that it so wickedly, curvedly, and viciously seeks all things, even God, for its own sake.” If we look through the book of Matthew we see that this interpretation of this parable is a more than plausible one. Go over to the sixth chapter of Matthew where Jesus says, Be careful not to perform your righteous acts before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.” And Jesus sums up, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The wheat is about life and nourishment and being fed what is good for us, the tares and the darnel bring the buzz and the escape but at a pretty steep cost. We must cease sowing, laboring over, reaping and consuming our own selfish self interests. If we turn back to the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew Jesus describes the actions of those welcomed into his Father’s kingdom: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me … Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” The treasure we have is our relationships to one another, they are the good wheat that nourishes us as we build up, care for and nourish one another. In the end all the other stuff is burned away. You know the old saying, “You can’t take it with you.” Remember how the darnel eaters suffered body parts withering and decaying and falling away and the body dying? St Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians the 12 chapter, “There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink.” and “But God has put together all the parts of the body. And he has given more honor to the parts that didn’t have any. In that way, the parts of the body will not take sides. All of them will take care of one another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part shares in its joy. You are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of it.” That is great and grace filled news, in Christ we are not alone. We are all a part of something much larger than ourselves. So let’s be mindful to sift the false wheat from our lives and not relish a worldly, temporary buzz but the eternal joy that has come through Christ who prayed, “”I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one.”
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